A television spot features Haggerty's 87-year-old mother, Eleanor, proclaiming, "I have a carton of milk that's been in the district longer than he has."

Margo said he's been planning to move for years, and did so when he found a suitable lot to build a new house.

Haggerty also tries to link Margo with people implicated in a federal corruption probe in El Paso.

Margo acknowledges a charity he ran had dealings with some of the now-implicated officials, and those connections brought him a visit from the FBI two years ago. Margo has not been linked to the corruption.

Margo, chairman and president of JDW Insurance, said the attacks against him are baseless.

"I've had no discussions with Craddick. We've not talked," Margo said. "Pat is just trying to mask an 18-year record. Sooner or later there's personal responsibility."

But Margo has received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Craddick supporters Paul Foster, president and CEO of Western Refining, and Woody Hunt, CEO of Hunt Building Co.

A Craddick spokeswoman said the speaker has not been involved in the Haggerty-Margo race.

"The speaker did not recruit Mr. Margo. This race is about the issues that are important to El Paso, and it will be decided on by the people of El Paso," spokeswoman Alexis DeLee said in a written statement.

Combined, Margo and Haggerty have spent more than $500,000 in the run-up to the primary.

Haggerty said it's the most expensive race he's ever run. A previous bid for re-election cost him about $60,000, he said.

Margo spent more than $438,000 in his failed 2006 bid to unseat Shapleigh.

Kathleen Staudt, a University of Texas-El Paso political science professor, said the money raised may be less important for the primary winner than the negative campaigning.

"The overall effect of negative campaigning is to make people cynical," Staudt said. "I think that come November, that kind of negativity could deliver the election to the Democratic candidate."

Even if the negative tone doesn't continue past the primary, Staudt said, it may well resonate with voters in the general election in November.

"There are some very mean and vicious things being said, and yes, people remember that," Staudt said.

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Associated Press writer April Castro contributed to this report from Austin.